Relational Database Management Systems are sometimes referred to as RDBMS.
Distributed RDBMS that are implemented according to a “Shared Nothing” system architecture are sometimes referred to as Parallel Database Servers (in contrast to Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) Database Servers) and when the number of logical computers in the Parallel Database Server is large, this is sometimes referred to as “Massively Parallel Processing” or MPP architecture.
Conventionally, the number of logical computer servers that participate in parallel database architectures remains constant during the life of the system. Elastic Parallel Database Servers are an extension of the static MPP architecture where the number and composition of the computer servers may change during query processing, often in response to the demands being placed on the system. We refer to Elastic Parallel Database Management Systems as EPRDBMS.